3rd of February, 2022.
Iris and her partner pass by me but then they come back. She will stay just in the next village but her partner will drive until Groningen, so he can drop me there. Yay!
They are very friendly and nice. Both very charming and stylish too! Iris writes down their names and email address on the back of my sign, but stupid as I am, I leave my sing in one of the future lifts I would get it. I feel really sorry that I will not be able to contact them. But their email and surname was way to difficult for me to remember.
Iris’ partner has some interesting ideas about how the Pyramids of Giza were built. He read about this theory and told me a bit about it. Energy. Body and mind energy. Before our stupid society times, humans could actually manipulate their energy on a way they could move things around them. It make sense to me! Mainly when it is combined by the fact of why we cannot do it anymore nowadays…? How did we lose that wonderful power? Fear. Control. Delusion. All bad things modern society created to manipulate us in order to make us weak and easier to be controlled. I have to read more about that. Anyway, he drops me in the first actual and proper hitchhiking spot of my whole travels: there is a sign of a thumb’s up on it! So cute…
What it is not cute though, is how long I wait there until somebody finally picks me up. Almost two hours! And there was even a bit of rain at some point. Apparently people are really not into hitchhiking anymore, to refuse to pick me up at a hitchhiking spot while I was going to the capital.
Who does stop for me is Orhan, a guy from Turkey who really wants to help me. He is just coming back from some shopping in Ikea and going home. He gets really surprised about my way of travelling and keep repeating that he admires me for that.
We agree to a gas station where he can drop me off because he is turning up North soon. He tries to give me money but I refuse. Then he gives me a Ikea version of the chocolate bar Twix and of course I accept! Yay! I love Twix! My favourite chocolate bar by far…
Flowers in the station.
I have now written “Volendam” on my sign. You see, I have sent many emails to museums in Amsterdam, telling them my story and asking if it would be possible to arrange a free visit for me, in advance, as I was advised before to do. But all of them turned me down. They were kind in their words and told me to admire what I am doing. But unfortunately, due to Covid, their financial situation is not so good so they cannot let me in for free. Ironically enough, the tiny little museum of Edam accepted me! And said I could visit not only the museum but also the city hall. Unbelievable! I am so happy for that! There is only one thing though: they are only open on Friday, and I am arriving in Edam on Thursday. At least I was it. After getting the great news about the museum, I decide to visit first Volendam, on Thursday, going to Edam after that, trying to find a shelter in some church, and next morning first thing I go to visit the museum and after the town. It sounds like a perfect plan, right! It would be… if I had managed to arrive on time in Volendam.
The next man who accept to drive me is going to Amsterdam. Ah, if only… But he will make a quick stop first, to deliver some stuff. He is a very polite and charming man, white hair and blue eyes. He works with interior designs. We stop by a Gentlemen’s Lounge, which is about to open in one week, where he needs to drop some huge flowers vases. I help him unloading them inside the building and he kindly says: “You could work for me!”.
At the gas station he drops me off we have a wonderful cappuccino. It is a shame he is not going to Volendam. I like talking to him.
All the toilets on the gas stations in the Netherlands are paid. Paid! Can you believe on that? You come to get some gas, you pay for it, than you buy a coffee or some snacks, and they still charge you for the toilets? Of course I don’t do any of that, I would simply just use the toilets, but how unthoughtful from them, hum?
The next man who stops for me is also quite charming. Even though at the beginning, I am not so sure about if I can trust on him. He shows himself as a very nice man and drives me all the way to Volendam! Even though he was not really going there.
By the time I arrive in Volendam is almost down so I know I have no time to visit the town. Because I don’t know where to go for a church around here (it sounds silly now when I think about it, because I could have simply looked for one) I decide to go all the way to Edam (about 30 minutes walking) and go for the places I have searched before. Tomorrow, after visiting the museum and Edam town, I could simply walk back here to Volendam and take a look on it. My Couchsurfing host in Amsterdam will be home only late night anyway so I can arrive there at down without any problem. I still will need to wait. And the drive from here to Amsterdam in only about 30 minutes.
If I only knew that I was about to face the devil himself… I would’ve staid.